Magic After School

Upon school dismissal today, Madeleine ran out the school doors with both pant legs rolled up to her knees, stripped off her coat, tossed it and her backpack to me, and ran off to play.

ME: Do you want me to take your school folder for you?
MADELEINE: (clutching her folder) Uh, no, can I play with it for a little while?  I'm pretending it's my MAGIC folder!

So Madeleine ran around the playground with a friend, holding tight to her folder, while Julia went on the swings.  After about 15 minutes, Julia was ready to head home.  I called to Madeleine, who began very slowly making her way to follow us.

As we reached the paved woodland path that leads to the road, I turned back to make sure Madeleine was with us.  I saw her a few steps behind me, laboriously hefting a snow-covered boulder in her arms.

ME: Okay, honey, put the rock down because we're almost to the road.
MADELEINE: But it's my MAGIC rock!
ME: Well, your magic rock needs to stay here at school.
MADELEINE: No!  But I want to take it home!  It's SPECIAL!
ME: Honey, we have plenty of rocks at our house.
MADELEINE: But this one is my magic rock!
ME: But it belongs at school.
MADELEINE: Please Mommy??  Please?
ME: No.  Put it down, please.  It's too big to take home.
MADELEINE: (heart-brokenly putting the rock on the side of the path)

It wasn't long before I heard her voice piping up behind me

MADELEINE: How about a magic SWORD??

I turned around to see her holding a fallen tree branch taller than her own body.

ME: No, put that down.  You already have a bunch of sticks at home.
MADELEINE: But it's my magic sword!
ME: Nope.

She caught up to me, without her magic sword, in time to cross the street together.  I was still carrying her backpack and her coat, so when she complained of getting a little chilly, I encouraged her to put the coat back on.

MADELEINE: Uh, no, that's okay...
ME: Honey, let's just put it on.
MADELEINE: (cradling a dried out oak leaf in her hand) But I don't wanna crush my magic LEAF!
ME: I'll hold your leaf.
MADELEINE: But it's a CHALLENGE to get home with no coat!
ME: Let's not do challenges that are not actually good for you.

I put her coat on and she made it home with her magic leaf intact.  I can totally see why it's magical and not a crumbling old dead oak leaf or anything:

At least I avoided having a boulder and a tree branch in my house, though.